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Getting Started

Today's World Wide Web (WWW) is a dynamic environment and its users set a high bar for both the style and function of sites. To build interesting and interactive sites, developers are turning to JavaScript libraries, such as jQuery, to automate common tasks and to simplify complicated ones. One reason the jQuery library is a popular choice is its ability to assist in a wide range of tasks.

It can seem challenging to know where to begin because jQuery performs so many different functions. Yet, there is a coherence and symmetry to the design of the library; many of its concepts are borrowed from the structure of HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). The library's design lends itself to a quick start for designers with little programming experience, since many have more experience with these technologies than they do with JavaScript. In fact, in this opening chapter, we'll write a functioning jQuery program in just three lines of code. On the other hand, experienced programmers will also appreciate this conceptual consistency.

In this chapter, we will cover:

The primary features of jQuery
Setting up a jQuery code environment
A simple working jQuery script example
Reasons to choose jQuery over plain JavaScript
Common JavaScript development tools

What jQuery does?

The jQuery library provides a general-purpose abstraction layer for common web scripting, and it is therefore useful in almost every scripting situation. Its extensible nature means that we could never cover all the possible uses and functions in a single book, as plugins are constantly being developed to add new abilities. The core features, though, assist us in accomplishing the following tasks:

Access elements in a document: Without a JavaScript library, web developers often need to write many lines of code to traverse the Document Object Model (DOM) tree and locate specific portions of an HTML document's structure. With jQuery, developers have a robust and efficient selector mechanism at their disposal, making it easy to retrieve the exact piece of the document that needs to be inspected or manipulated.

$('div.content').find('p');

Modify the appearance of a web page: CSS offers a powerful method of influencing the way a document is rendered, but it falls short when not all web browsers support the same standards. With jQuery, developers can bridge this gap, relying on the same standards support across all browsers. In addition, jQuery can change the classes or individual style properties applied to a portion of the document even after the page has been rendered.

$('ul > li:first').addClass('active');

Alter the content of a document: Not limited to mere cosmetic changes, jQuery can modify the content of a document itself with a few keystrokes. Text can be changed, images can be inserted or swapped, lists can be reordered, or the entire structure of the HTML can be rewritten and extended--all with a single easy-to-use Application Programming Interface (API).

$('#container').append('<a href="more.html">more</a>');

Respond to a user's interaction: Even the most elaborate and powerful behaviors are not useful if we can't control when they take place. The jQuery library offers an elegant way to intercept a wide variety of events, such as a user clicking on a link, without the need to clutter the HTML code itself with event handlers.

$('button.show-details').click(() => { 
  $('div.details').show(); 
});

Animate changes being made to a document: To effectively implement such interactive behaviors, a designer must also provide visual feedback to the user. The jQuery library facilitates this by providing an array of effects such as fades and wipes, as well as a toolkit for crafting new ones.

$('div.details').slideDown();

Retrieve information from a server without refreshing a page: This pattern is known as Ajax, which originally stood for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, but has since come to represent a much greater set of technologies for communicating between the client and the server. The jQuery library removes the browser-specific complexity from this process, allowing developers to focus on the server-side functionality.

$('div.details').load('more.html #content');

Why jQuery works well?

With the resurgence of interest in dynamic HTML comes a proliferation of JavaScript frameworks. Some are specialized, focusing on just one or two of the tasks previously mentioned. Others attempt to catalog every possible behavior and animation and serves these up prepackaged. To maintain the wide range of features outlined earlier while remaining relatively compact, jQuery employs several strategies:

Leverage knowledge of CSS: By basing the mechanism for locating page elements on CSS selectors, jQuery inherits a terse yet legible way of expressing a document's structure. The jQuery library becomes an entry point for designers who want to add behaviors to their pages because a prerequisite for doing professional web development is knowledge of CSS syntax.
Support extensions: In order to avoid "feature creep", jQuery relegates special-case uses to plugins. The method for creating new plugins is simple and well documented, which has spurred the development of a wide variety of inventive and useful modules. Even most of the features in the basic jQuery download are internally realized through the plugin architecture and can be removed if desired, yielding an even smaller library.
Abstract away browser quirks: An unfortunate reality of web development is that each browser has its own set of deviations from published standards. A significant portion of any web application can be relegated to handling features differently on each platform. While the ever-evolving browser landscape makes a perfectly browser-neutral codebase impossible for some advanced features, jQuery adds an abstraction layer that normalizes the common tasks, reducing the size of code while tremendously simplifying it.
Always work with sets: When we instruct jQuery to find all elements with the class collapsible and hide them, there is no need to loop through each returned element. Instead, methods such as .hide() are designed to automatically work on sets of objects instead of individual ones. This technique, called implicit iteration, means that many looping constructs become unnecessary, shortening code considerably.
Allow multiple actions in one line: To avoid overuse of temporary variables or wasteful repetition, jQuery employs a programming pattern called chaining for the majority of its methods. This means that the result of most operations on an object is the object itself, ready for the next action to be applied to it.

These strategies keep the file size of the jQuery package small, while at the same time providing techniques for keeping our custom code that uses the library compact as well.

The elegance of the library comes about partly by design and partly due to the evolutionary process spurred by the vibrant community that has sprung up around the project. Users of jQuery gather to discuss not only the development of plugins but also enhancements to the core library. The users and developers also assist in continually improving the official project documentation, which can be found at http://api.jquery.com.

Despite all the efforts required to engineer such a flexible and robust system, the end product is free for all to use. This open source project is licensed under the MIT License to permit free use of jQuery on any site and facilitate its use within proprietary software. If a project requires it, developers can relicense jQuery under the GNU Public License for inclusion in other GNU-licensed open source projects.

Key benefits

- Create a fully featured and responsive client-side application using jQuery

- Explore all the latest features of jQuery 3.0 and code examples updated to reflect modern JavaScript environments

- Develop high performance interactive pages

Description

If you are a web developer and want to create web applications that look good, are efficient, have rich user interfaces, and integrate seamlessly with any backend using AJAX, then this book is the ideal match for you. We’ll show you how you can integrate jQuery 3.0 into your web pages, avoid complex JavaScript code, create brilliant animation effects for your web applications, and create a flawless app. We start by configuring and customising the jQuery environment, and getting hands-on with DOM manipulation. Next, we’ll explore event handling advanced animations, creating optimised user interfaces, and building useful third-party plugins. Also, we'll learn how to integrate jQuery with your favourite back-end framework. Moving on, we’ll learn how the ECMAScript 6 features affect your web development process with jQuery. we’ll discover how to use the newly introduced JavaScript promises and the new animation API in jQuery 3.0 in great detail, along with sample code and examples. By the end of the book, you will be able to successfully create a fully featured and efficient single page web application and leverage all the new features of jQuery 3.0 effectively.

What you will learn

-Create custom interactive elements for your web designs

-Find out how to create the best user interface for your web applications

-Use selectors in a variety of ways to get anything you want from a page when you need it

-Master events to bring your web pages to life

-Add flair to your actions with a variety of different animation effects

-Discover the latest features available in jQuery with the latest update of this incredibly popular title

-Using jQuery npm Packages

What do you get with Print?

Instant access to your digital eBook copy whilst your Print order is Shipped

Paperback book shipped to your preferred address

Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats

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DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want

Frequently bought together

€67.99

HTML5 and CSS3: Building Responsive Websites

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Total € 174.97

RSG Jul 22, 2021

What I can't understand is how this book has reached the lofty level of "Fifth Edition" considering that it reads like the result of late-night Googling. The code snippets introduce variables and structures that are not even mentioned in the text. Very poor writing and editing!

Amazon Verified review

Braain kumar Oct 05, 2017

Good for moderate learners not for too advance

Cliente de Amazon Aug 15, 2017

Great tutorial ,perfect for begginers, updated to jquery 3.0

Learning jQuery 3: Interactive front-end website development , Fifth Edition

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Learning jQuery 3

Getting Started

What jQuery does?

Why jQuery works well?

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Learning jQuery 3: Interactive front-end website development , Fifth Edition

What do you get with Print?

Key benefits

Description

Who is this book for?

What you will learn

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